mama monday: healthy competition?

Too many of the blogs written by women trying to conceive only focus on the negative.  Not being pregnant YET.  Not having a family YET.  Not being a mom YET.  The competition with other women who are pregnant can be particularly vicious, which is something that has never made sense to me. 

I'd assume that if one is so keen on babies that one would celebrate babies wherever they are, in any circumstance that they are. 

Pregnancy isn't the only stage on which girls have showdowns.  It's found everywhere from home ownership to home decor to marriage to weddings to relationships to fashion to careers to education and alllllll the way back to the playground.  Girls can be mean.  And usually to each other.

I'd like to take this Mama Monday to celebrate the girls who aren't mean.  The ones that let other girls into their heart, no matter the cost, and keep them there.  The girls who listen as well as speak.  The girls who give the hard advice as much as the easy advice.  And here's to hoping I end up more and more like one of those girls.

Melissa and her hubby, Jon, gave birth to the littlest friend in our group on October 10, 2010 (10/10/10) at 10:15 p.m.  His name is Noah Contstance Börger and although we've been saying hi to him womb-side for 9 months, it's amazing to meet him in person.  He's very, very fortunate to have a mom who doesn't have a mean bone in her body. 

Mama's hello.
Papa's hello.

foto friday: welcome to the castle

Last week I posted a photo of a lonesome little potted plant wedged in the window of The Castle.  The following is a detailed description of this fine citadel.

The Castle, a fearsome fortress of estrogen, stands in the kingdom of High Park.  Six princesses currently reside there, although Princess Grzetic is pledged to marry a prince from a neighbouring kingdom and she will be transporting her estate by chariot later next week.

The Castle boasts six private quarters, a wing dedicated to quiet study and artistic endeavours, two food preparation halls, two lounges for entertaining foreign delegates, a grand front entrance, manicured gardens, and a dungeon.

The princesses cohabit in harmony with each other and relative kingdoms around them.  The Castle has been the setting for many elaborate balls thrown in honour of the princesses or one of their aristocratic peers, including the 80s themed masquerade for Princess Seachrist before she was reinstated as royalty in her home nation.

Each one of the chambers are carefully decorated according to the discriminating tastes of each princess.  The following pictorial narrative reveals a rare glimpse into the boudoir of Princess Payne and, indeed, the life of the young monarch herself.

manly men, girly girls

Ten years ago (wow...I can recount in decades now, like a real adult) I worked as a counsellor at a summer camp. Amid the slew of in-jokes, camp names and code words we coined a term known as "Fluffy kat" which we knew to mean a flirty girl. Cat spelled with a "k" because it seemed...flirtier. We had matching T-shirts commissioned in Huntsville: red lettering on white cotton. Tight fitting, of course. I'm sure someone still has a photographic evidence.

What reminded me of the Fluffy Kat phenomenon today was none other than the new spring/summer ad campaign from French Connection. The print ads are here, here, and here. The commercials (directed as mini French movies) are here. A co-worker's quote: "I just want to eat them like little French...macaroons."

Since I've been on a gender kick recently, these ads made me realize what I love about advertising and art. French Connection reveals just enough of a stereotype (the French-accented narration doesn't hurt either...who is to argue with the French?) that both sexes feel honourably and wryly represented.

The two sides are not competing, not arguing, not vying for power, but rather mirroring the other like flip sides of a coin. Equal, but different.

Also, this campaign makes me want to go to Paris in a way I have never before encountered.